Is it worth living in a gated community? Part 2

Disadvantages of living in a gated community

In our previous article we looked at flats in gated communities. You learned about a number of benefits of buying a property in this kind of place. Everything, however, has its upsides and downsides, and gated communities also have their dark side, where not everything is quite so idyllic. Here are the most important disadvantages.

Cut off from the outside world

This is the main argument made against gated communities. They are accused of separating people from real life and giving them a distorted picture of it. All the neighbours are, after all, similar to one another in some way, in terms of financial and social status, and often mentality too. So there is none of the diversity that we can observe in traditional housing estates. The world here is clean, pleasant, wealthy and safe, which can mislead children in particular, who, if brought up in such an environment, will have little idea of what the real world is like today.

Lack of privacy

Another disadvantage is the lack of privacy. In such communities everyone knows each other, CCTV is installed everywhere, and on top of that a guard watches who comes and goes and knows who has which visitors. It is hard to hide anything here, so if you prefer a discreet lifestyle, living in a gated community is not for you.

A false sense of security

Statistics show that although the managers do their best to give residents of gated communities a strong sense of security, the presence of CCTV and security guards does not reduce attempted crime in this kind of place. The rate of thefts and burglaries is comparable to that in traditional housing estates.

The troublesome fence

What was supposed to give us security and a sense of exclusivity can become a rather irritating part of everyday life in this kind of place. There are not many ways out of a gated community, so we often have to go the long way round and waste time getting out of our enclave. This can be frustrating, especially when we are in a hurry to get somewhere.

It is hard to say definitively whether it is worth living in a gated community. It is a very individual matter. Some will take to it like a duck to water, while others will not be able to stand the discreet but ever-present control.

Nevertheless, it is an undeniable fact that in Poland this kind of housing estate is a symbol of a certain prestige and high social status, as well as of exclusivity, which gives the feeling that we live in a place to which not everyone has access. Many of us, after years of working and saving for our own flat, are therefore happy to pay for this distinctiveness.